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Tavern on the Green

News about Tavern on the Green, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. More

Updated: Dec. 9, 2009

The landmark Manhattan restaurant Tavern on the Green, in Central Park at 67th Street on the Upper West Side, opened its doors in 1934. It has served ever since as an elegant and quintessentially New York destination for tourists and locals alike.

Since 1974, Tavern on the Green has been run by the LeRoy family, which turned the former sheep barn into a wood-paneled showcase for Tiffany glass and bronze statues of big game. But in August 2009, the family lost out in bidding for a new 25-year contract with the city to Dean J. Poll, who runs the Central Park Boathouse.

In September 2009, just before the landmark restaurant was to yield its license to Mr. Poll in December, its owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, scrapping plans for a swank outpost in San Francisco.

In a statement, the current license holder, Jennifer Oz LeRoy, chief executive of Tavern, said that the filing was "our only alternative given the current situation," adding that the decision was the result of "two factors — the extreme financial distress brought on by the current financial crisis and the City of New York's decision not to renew our license." An auction in January 2010 at Guerney's will help pay off more than 450 creditors, which includes the city.

The current operators said in October 2009 that they needed an extra three months to move out beyond Dec. 31, 2009, when the current operating license expires or they would have to lay off all of the more than 400 employees during the lucrative Christmas season. Mr. Poll, the future operator, opposed the extension, saying he might then be forced to shut down the restaurant for two years while he undertakes renovation work.

Mr. Poll has said he plans to make a $25 million capital investment in the restaurant — which is near 67th Street and Central Park West — refurbishing the heating and ventilation systems, the kitchens and the plumbing.

The renovations will be conducted in phases, so the restaurant will remain open. Mr. Poll's proposal calls for an outdoor cafe and bike racks. New landscape designs will open up views of the Sheep Meadow, and the Crystal Room, often used for weddings, will be reconceived as a conservatory-style dining space.

Under the current license, which ends Dec. 31, the LeRoy family was required to pay 3.5 percent of the restaurant's gross receipts to the city, though more recent parks department licenses have required restaurant operators to pay more than 10 percent. Mr. Poll's Boathouse pays 16.5 percent. Mr. Poll said there was a tentative agreement for the payments for the Tavern to begin at 5 percent "and go up over time."

Self-described as "the highest-grossing independently owned restaurant in the United States, with annual revenues in excess of $34 million and over half a million visitors a year," Tavern on the Green is set within a collection of lush gardens festooned with Japanese lanterns and twinkling lights. It is a popular venue for weddings and parties.

Though the restaurant is famous for its fantasyland décor of twinkling lights and glitzy mirrors, absolutely none of these items will transfer free to the new license owner. And the city cannot pass along the restaurant’s traditional name, "Tavern on the Green," appraised in 2009 at $19 million.

In June 2008, Tavern on the Green agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in the fall of 2007 by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The commission said that the restaurant had "engaged in severe and pervasive" sexual and racial harassment of female, black and Hispanic employees.